The 4 Pillars of Great Bootcamp Planning

Over the time I have run this blog I have hinted at the tactics I use to plan out my bootcamps and it’s gotten me a few emails over the past few months so I thought it might be useful to you for me to give you an example.

1. Plan Your Cycle

Good planning is something you should already be doing in all aspects of your business. Planning your workouts should be no exception.

My bootcamp runs in four week cycles, four weeks on, one week of rest. This gives me some time to think up some great new ideas and lets my campers recover from weeks 3 and 4 which tend to be pretty intense. It also allows me a week off to run away on a holiday if I need to.

You might run yours non stop or for more weeks at a time, but the planning method stays the same.

To start, I write out a list from one to twelve and then starting at the top I work my way down the list writing a very short, one line workout description. I usually do this during my week off, but it can be done at any time.

Once I have at least 10 ideas I create a calender to plan out which days I’m doing which workout. I’ll do this on the computer and usually beef out my workout description to a couple of sentences. I may also reference some workout sources for drills I want to include/adapt.

In the sample plan above I created most of the workouts myself. During my current round of bootcamp however, I’ve adapted most of the workouts from ebooks.

2. Variety is the Spice of Bootcamps

One important ingredient that you don’t want to forget in your bootcamp is variety. One of the things that people always comment on in the feedback forms at my bootcamp is ‘I really enjoyed the variety of the workouts’.

The way I manage variety is using a step I haven’t shown you above.

That step is workout type allocation.

To continue the example above: Before I started letting the ideas flow I decided that I would do 7 general high intensity workouts (with 2 of them being team challenges) , 2 sprint workouts, 2 strength workouts (using ropes, tyres or weights) and 1 cardio workout.

Your allocations and workout types might be different. It doesn’t really matter, what this will do is ensure that you do not end up doing too many similar classes. Doing circuits every week gets boring quickly for both you and your clients.

3. Plan a Whole Week at a Time

One great thing about being a trainer is that on Friday I knock off sometime between 10:30am and 12:00pm. But before I hit the couch to read a book or watch some Game of Thrones, I plan out my following weeks workouts.

Use your bootcamp calender to get your creative juices flowing. I like to plan out my workouts on a scrap of paper before putting them in my Word document, I find it easier to see the flow of the workout this way. You may prefer to go straight to the computer or you might find that just drawing an annotated diagram is enough for you.

Sometimes you will end up doing something completely different to what you had planned on your calender, that’s OK. Simply keep that idea for another day.

Whatever you do, take the time to plan out at least a weeks worth at a time. That way you can always switch it up if you get bad weather or a workout turns pear shaped. This level of preparation is part of what your clients are paying for.

4. Name Your Workouts

The last thing you can do for your workouts is give them a name. Names have huge power. People who understand this are usually either very successful or very well liked.

When you give something a name, you give it an identity. It becomes a tangible thing. This applies to emotions, business brands, peoples names and of course bootcamp workouts.

In the example above I had decided to include some Avengers themed workouts. I named for workouts after superhero’s.

The week before I would say, ‘Next week we are doing the Captain America workout’. That grasped their attention and interest far more than saying ‘Next week we are doing sprints’.

It also gives clients something to talk about. For example: ‘Ah, my shoulders are so sore, yesterday my trainer made us do an Incredible Hulk workout were we had to carry tyres and ropes above our head while doing lunges’.

I bet your client’s friend is much more likely to remember that then a simple statement about sore shoulders.

Conclusion

No matter how you run your bootcamp, planning out your workouts in advance will help your stay organised and will remove that late night panic of quickly scribbling out a workout (I’ve been there).

So just like you tell your clients that they need to eat better to finally lose some weight, you need to plan to run a great expandable business.

Kyle Wood created Bootcamp Ideas in 2010 when he was hunting around on the internet for workout ideas. He ran a successful bootcamp in Victoria, Australia and spends his spare time managing this site, adventuring (or lazying) with his wife and find new ways to make bootcamps even better.

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